Not for me. I'm too familiar with playing a guitar shaped instrument to switch to a stick shaped instrument. If I want something like the atiphon I can pick up a Casio or Yamaha keyboard and turn it sideways.

Thanks for sharing the link though. I hadn't seen it yet. There seems to be a lot of crowd sourced midi instruments. Isn't that how the You Rock midi controller was initially funded?

I still think Inspired Instruments was on the right track. Generation 2 was successful. The Radius neck was successful. If Generation 3 had continued the improvements instead of repackaging the Generation 2 electronic guts into a Strat wannabe with a resistive screen tablet for a control panel I think they might still be in business. On the other hand Inspired Instruments expected gamers to buy enough product as game controllers to be able to support continued development as a music controller. When the gaming market collapsed so did product demand.

Not for me. I'm too familiar with playing a guitar shaped instrument to switch to a stick shaped instrument. If I want something like the atiphon I can pick up a Casio or Yamaha keyboard and turn it sideways.

Thanks for sharing the link though. I hadn't seen it yet. There seems to be a lot of crowd sourced midi instruments. Isn't that how the You Rock midi controller was initially funded?

I still think Inspired Instruments was on the right track. Generation 2 was successful. The Radius neck was successful. If Generation 3 had continued the improvements instead of repackaging the Generation 2 electronic guts into a Strat wannabe with a resistive screen tablet for a control panel I think they might still be in business. On the other hand Inspired Instruments expected gamers to buy enough product as game controllers to be able to support continued development as a music controller. When the gaming market collapsed so did product demand.

I bought my generation 1 in a high street shop, I don't remember it being crowdfunded, I think generation 2 was, with stickers/headstocks as bonus for early supporters. Rock Band made a come back with a VR version last year, so you would think the demand for a cheap guitar midi controller would increase again.

You're likely right about the crowd funding. Time and events blend together to me sometimes. Did you ever see Inspired Instrument's Lineage midi guitar controller at http://www.lineageguitar.com/ Only $1,000 when you pre order. That's the main reason the radius neck and Gen2 electronics were developed.

What is a high street shop? Do you mean a brick and mortar music store? I've seen some guitar shaped midi controllers return to stores but I was not aware Rock Band is on the comeback trail.

I don't remember the brand but one guitar midi controller was interesting because it was full size, used steel strings and had a hexaphonic magnetic pick up. The pick up was normally used to detect string movement but the controller also had an internal analog mixer to combine the six channels into one for output through a standard 1/4" high TS jack. The manufacturer went through more than $3 million on development costs only to release the product in 2009 when the gamer market was collapsing. Somebody bout the returns and unsold stock and was selling complete controllers for about $20 each. I really wanted one but at the time I was doing any work I could find just to put food on the table and pay bills.